End PEAR Project Endorsement View as Markdown

Introduction

PEAR was historically promoted as a framework and distribution system for reusable PHP components. That historical relationship has become a liability for the PHP project. The current situation has several critical issues:

• The PHP project has no access to the PEAR infrastructure and website, despite it being hosted under the official php.net domain.
• The PHP project cannot guarantee the integrity and security of the content served from pear.php.net.
• The PEAR web repository was recently archived. Leaving an unmaintained site on a php.net subdomain creates security risks.
• The current website is effectively unmaintained and has many functional issues, including broken links, missing package pages with still-existing bug trackers, broken documentation downloads, non-functional search, and visible spam (e.g. casino links).
• A large portion of the PEAR ecosystem is effectively inactive: 534/603 of packages are marked unmaintained, 63/69 of the remaining packages have not been updated for extended periods (PEAR metadata on 2026-06-22).
• PHP source distributions still contain PEAR, which suggests maintenance that no longer reflects reality.
• PEAR mailing lists on news-web.php.net are effectively abandoned, leaving users without meaningful project response.

All this combined is a bad look, and a reputational risk for the PHP project. There were similar RFCs [4][5] in the past (last in 2025), but never brought to a vote. This RFC takes the concerns from earlier discussion into account: PHP internals cannot vote to stop independent maintainers from maintaining PEAR elsewhere. PHP internals can, however, decide what PHP bundles, what PHP domains serve, and what official websites endorse.

PEAR Support

Since this RFC entered discussion, Chuck Burgess, long-time PEAR maintainer and member of the PEAR Group, contacted the RFC author and expressed support for sunsetting the PEAR website and removing PEAR from PHP source. The proposal can therefore proceed with explicit support and assistance from an PEAR representative.

Proposal

This RFC proposes to end the PHP project's explicit endorsement for the independent PEAR project, to unbundle PEAR from PHP sources, and for the time being provide a static PEAR archive to keep legacy CLI clients working. It is proposed to take the following four actions.

1. Provide Archive

All relevant, public pages of the current PEAR website will be served as a static archive. The infrastructure team will decide technical details. The archive includes package details, downloads, manuals, and public bug reports. The browsable archive, including PEAR CLI endpoints, will remain available until 2027-12-31 to not abruptly break legacy users. After that, the archive will be provided as a download.

2. Unbundle PEAR

PHP source will no longer install or bundle the PEAR installer. This proposal aligns with the pre-existing PR [1] by Jakub, which intends to remove PEAR (and related integration). This RFC formalises that direction.

3. Update Communication

References to PEAR will be removed from official PHP websites. Composer should be mentioned as the community package manager -- this recommendation does not make Composer a PHP project and does not change Composer governance.

4. Archive Mailing Lists

The PEAR mailing lists under news-web.php.net will be moved to the “Inactive Lists” section, where they will be accessible like other inactive non-PEAR and PEAR lists.

Non-goals

The goal is not to take over the governance of the independent PEAR package ecosystem. If an independent PEAR team wants to continue PEAR as an active project, they remain free to do so under domains they control.

BC & RFC Impact

Users will no longer receive PEAR bundled with PHP itself, but can install it manually. Users of the 6 packages that are still publishing on PEAR must switch to their Composer-installable versions.

Proposed PHP Version(s)

8.7 for the php-src unbundling.

Voting

Requires 2/3 Yes.

Vote: Stop endorsing PEAR? — Yes: 32 · No: 0 · Abstain: 0 (open)

References

• [1] https://github.com/php/php-src/pull/20124
• [2] https://github.com/pear/pearweb
• [3] https://packagist.org/packages/pear/
• [4] https://externals.io/rfc/deprecate-pear-include-composer (2016)
• [5] https://wiki.php.net/rfc/deprecate_pear_recommend_composer (2025)

Changelog

• 2026-09-14: Reflect PEAR support; added archive timeline.
• 2026-08-27: Moved to discussion.
• 2026-06-24: Initial.